TRANSPORT Secretary Stephen Byers was last night facing the prospect of being sued by Railtrack after the company announced big half-yearly profits.

TRANSPORT Secretary Stephen Byers was last night facing the prospect of being sued by Railtrack after the company announced big half-yearly profits.

Mr Byers moved to put Railtrack into administration in October this year, saying the company was in "financial meltdown".

But yesterday Railtrack revealed its pre-tax profit for April-September 2001 was &#xA3;292m and said the figures supported its long-held view that it was solvent when it went into administration.

Railtrack Group finance director David Harding said, "We are pursuing legal action against the Government. We are taking the first steps in preparing legal action.

"We expect to put the Secretary of State (Mr Byers) on notice of our intentions soon."

Transport Minister John Spellar dismissed the company's claim that it was viable, saying Railtrack had given no indication it could control its costs.

The Conservatives said Mr Byers's decision to "pull the plug on the company appears to be purely political", while passenger groups said train customers would be bemused at the financial success of a company presiding over a "poor-standard" network.

The &#xA3;292m figure compared with half-yearly profits of &#xA3;175m for the April-September 2000 period. Operating profit rose from &#xA3;197m to &#xA3;333m, although this included &#xA3;732m of public money.

Railtrack Group chief executive Steve Marshall said yesterday, "Rail-track was trading profitably, in line with expectations," profit was being invested in the network at unprecedented levels and the company was achieving this by using profits to borrow on the financial market.